I've always wanted a copy of the Easton Press' The Silmarillion; but eBay listings always have new/sealed copies, and nobody seems sure of the printing status.

Whats with the printing history of Easton Press publications? In particular when did they first print The Silmarillion?; when were subsequent printings?; and how are these differentiated on the copyright page (or otherwise)?

Any help much appreciated. Information on any of the Tolkien Easton Press publications would also be welcomed. Also, has anyone bought the CoH Easton Press yet? (and have any information/comments on it?)

Thanks,

Brian

Posted on: 2008/5/18 1:43

_________________You drive a hard bargain – you can have it for £10 all-in – one consolation (for you) is that you do not have to hear the cries of my children, for bread...

You will likely want to start at Easton Press Silmarillion page on TCG. I recently talked with the staff of Easton Press to answer a lot of these kinds of questions, because it really is so hard to tell. According to them, there really is no way to tell which printing you have - the book has been in continuous publication since 1999, with no indication of printing whatsoever - they just run off a few thousand more whenever they are running low on copies. Some other titles, (for example the Father Christmas Letters) only had a single print run, and are thus a bit more collectible at this time, though of course they could run off another printing and reduce the rarity of that title at any time.

All of the books are of very high quality, and look and feel quite nice. Unfortunately the Children of Hurin matches the trade edition size, not the other Easton Press book sizes, so it looks a bit puny next to the other Easton Press titles on your bookshelf.

There may be some very subtle printing codes or manufacturing differences between print runs, but I have never had two copies in hand at the same time from obviously different time periods, to compare and contrast. No one on staff knew of any, so even if one or more was found, there would be no way to determine priority.